Mosquito-repellent patch to test in Uganda

Torrey Tayenaka holds the Kite Patch, a sticker designed to make humans undetectable to mosquitoes. COURTESY OF KITE PATCH

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Orange County entrepreneur Torrey Tayenaka played a key role in developing the Kite Patch, a 1.5-inch square sticker that is designed to make humans undetectable to mosquitoes by impairing the pests' ability to smell the carbon dioxide we breathe out.

The patch is made by Olfactor Laboratories Inc., a subsidiary of ieCrowd, an incubator based in Riverside. The original technology was created at UC Riverside and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Tayenaka was hired as the creative lead for Kite Patch about a year ago. He and his Costa Mesa-based companies – the OC Creative Media advertising firm and Sparkhouse video production and marketing business – had worked on other projects with ieCrowd. Tayenaka leads the marketing and design of Kite Patch's brand, website and videos.

The 26-year-old USC film school grad also worked with ieCrowd Chief Marketing Officer Grey Frandsen and Olfactor Vice President and chief scientist Michelle Brown to turn the original repellant liquid into a marketable product.

For months, the team explored bracelets, lotions, sprays and other delivery methods. “We developed the name Kite, the shape and delivery method of the product,” said Tayenaka.

The final design had to be affordable and light enough to be delivered to Africa, said Tayenaka. It had to work without batteries and leave no carbon footprint. The patch will soon be tested for six months in Uganda, where malaria is the leading cause of illness and death, according to Jerry P. Lanier, former U.S. ambassador to that country.

Kite Patch launched a 45-day Indiegogo campaign to drum up $75,000 from the public to fund its Uganda project. The campaign reached its goal in less than five days, and ended last week with a total $557,254 from 10,786 donations.

Tayenaka said the extra money will also take care of a majority of the huge fees needed to get approvals from the Environmental Protection Agency to distribute the sticker in the U.S., which the company hopes to have in the next 12 months. All of its active ingredients are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human consumption.

The patch was designed to last one day, Tayenaka said, but testing showed that it lasted 48 hours. That works in the U.S., where people are likely to use it while barbecuing, fishing or hunting. In Uganda, the stickers will be provided in kits with a month's supply of patches to be worn daily.

On the move

Jason Hart has been appointed CEO and director at Identive Group Inc., a secure ID company based in Santa Ana. He replaces Ayman S. Ashour, who resigned as chief executive but remains as non-executive chairman of the board of directors. Hart was previously executive vice president of the company's identity management and cloud solutions division. He plans to focus the company on the cloud services and mobile access markets. Identive also recently raised approximately $7.1 million in a private round of funding.

Melissa Fox has been hired as vice president of marketing and communications at Prevo Health Solutions, a consulting services group based in San Juan Capistrano. She is the founder of Fox Health Coaching, a private health coaching practice.

Jonathan Lynch was hired by The Saywitz Co., a commercial real estate brokerage in Newport Beach, as leasing manager for The Saywitz Properties, the company's management group. He was previously an onsite resident manager for Action Property Management.

New ventures

Teradek LLC, an Irvine manufacturer of systems that wirelessly transmit live video, has been acquired by The Vitec Group plc, a UK-based camera equipment manufacturer, for $14.9 million in cash and stocks. The deal could be worth up to $15.5 million more, depending on the future profitability of Teradek.

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